1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates primarily to the field of training devices for athletes. In a more specific sense, the device is intended for use in the training of pole vaulters, and is a removable attachment, connectable to a conventional vaulting pole so as to be classifiable, appropriately, as an exercising or training device designed particularly for use in field sports and even more specifically in the pole vaulting category or field sport event.
2. Description of the Prior Art
It has been heretofore proposed, generally, to provide training devices for use in field sports to aid in the development in proper techniques. Thus, in javelin throwing, it has been proposed to provide a training javelin such as in U.S. Pat. No. 3,746,334, in which collarlike attachments are provided on a javelin. Such attachments, however, are primarily concerned with permitting indoor exercising or training programs, and in no sense has there been any suggestion, so far as is known, for an attachment intended specifically for use on a vaulting pole, for the purpose of training athletes in the proper hands-apart techniques.
Attachments for vaulting poles heretofore devised have been for purposes other than that for which the present invention is primarily intended, and naturally enough, have failed to show any real capability of discharging the intended purpose of the present invention. For example, a collarlike attachment has been illustrated for a vaulting pole in U.S. Pat. No. 3,815,902, but this has been for measuring purposes, and would be incapable of use as a training device for pole vaulters intended to train one specifically in a proper hands-apart technique.
In U.S. Pat. No. 3,012,778, it has been suggested that a socket be provided for the lower end of a vaulting pole for training purposes. However, again there has been no suggestion for a training device having the specific purpose, manner of use, and physical locating and adjustability characteristics inherent in and indeed specifically designed into the present invention.
The problem, it may be noted, has to do primarily with novice vaulters, although the problem may indeed exist in the training of pole vaulters who are more advanced. For example, in high school athletic training programs, considerable effort has been expended in recent years to expand such programs in the direction of field sports, including pole vaulting. The modern vaulting pole is a fiberglass pole as compared to bamboo and steel poles of earlier eras. In the earlier poles, the bending characteristics of the pole, that is, the basic flexibility and resiliency thereof, was more limited than is true of the modern, fiberglass pole. As a result, the approved technique was one in which the hands were placed together on the pole.
The hands-together technique was found to be a detrimental factor in the training of athletes in the use of the modern, fiberglass poles, since the capability of the athlete is related directly to a bending moment of the pole, achieved through a particular combination of speed, drive off the takeoff foot, and very importantly, a wide-spaced, so-called hands-apart, grip upon the pole.
Novice vaulters, in particular, are prone to slide their hands together, so that much is taken away from their capability of vaulting with a proper technique. This is a problem that has been encountered by those who train athletes at high school or for that matter at college level and is the problem to which the present invention addresses itself.